GiGi’s Has a Real Recipe for Success

This is the whiteboard that sits on the counter of GiGi’s kitchen. Each Tuesday, it displays the menu that the adult participants of GiGi’s Kitchen will prepare and have for lunch. But if you look a bit closer at the menu planned for this day, you’ll see that it’s more than meets the eye.

We only prepare dishes that are gluten- and nut-free. Is it because we have participants or volunteers that have celiac disease or nut allergies? No necessarily. It’s because we believe in exercising caution and respecting food sensitivities that any of our friends may have.

You’ll notice, too, that there are names after each menu item. That’s because we encourage our participants to help plan our weekly menu. On this day, Steven and Eric suggested the entrée, Becky suggested the salad, and Steven suggested the desert. Eric even found the recipe for spaghetti and meatballs!

Another thing you’ll notice is that all the items on this menu are healthy. There’s never anything fried and the meatballs that we prepared for this meal were made with turkey. Every week, we do our best to follow the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s dietary guidelines when planning each meal.

What you don’t see in this photo is how our volunteers work with our participants in groups to safely prepare each menu item and then sit down together for lunch. There’s no microwaving food out of a can here. We carefully follow each recipe to measure ingredients, mix, season, stir, and prepare the food with love. It’s all about working together, learning the fine art of cooking, taking pride in what we create, and enjoying it together as a family. That’s the recipe that makes GiGi’s Playhouse such a fantastic place.

I can’t promise you that there will be enough food to go around, but you are more than welcome to drop by on a Tuesday around 11 and see for yourself!